My son turned 10 in May. This is what he still enjoys playing with: Skyrail Marble Roller Coaster (250 pieces) He loves doing different designs in his room - lots of different combinations to try! Snap Circuits Kit Pocket Knife (always a winner for boys!)

I tried OPGTR, but it wasn't a good fit for us. The black and white pages with no illustrations bored us to tears. My husband is an artist, and we ALL need lots of color/visual stimulation!! (The great room in our home is actually painted 3 different, bold colors, and we love it!) My kids did very well using a combination of things: Hooked on Phonics (love that there is no writing component - easy to use and fun, interesting readers) Happy Phonics (great supplement, lots of games and activities to make learning to read more fun) Explode the Code books (excellent reinforcement) Victory Drill Book (a must for fluency)

I like using a combination of different things: Hooked on Phonics (love the color, ease of use, and readers were great) Explode the Code (great for reinforcement) Happy Phonics (love the games for variety) Victory Drill Book (wonderful for fluency!!) I didn't like OPGTR - thought it was boring - I know the black and white pages were intentional, but my kids and I need the color and pictures! Another thing that bugged me about it was that it used a lower case L (l) for a capital I. This was really confusing to my child. He never knew whether he should make an L sound or an i sound!

I hope Joanne Calderwood doesn't mind me quoting from her yahoo group. It is called "Raisingsl4life" (raising self learners for life). She speaks about WHY we want students to learn on their own in below quote. It's long, but it's an excellent explanation... "It's pretty simple. Take out the middle man as much as possible, and in home education, that middle man is you, the teacher. I was talking with two moms over lunch last week, and they both were telling me that they feel kind of useless in their children's education if they are not hands-on doing every subject with their children every day. They have experienced a bit of hurt feelings when their children have let them know that they prefer to just go and read and do their work by themselves. (These two moms each have two children at this point, by the way.) To be honest, if I had not had too many children to help all at once, I probably would have been utterly stifling to my children in my teaching style. I would have continued to model our home school after the very system in which I had decided I didn't want my child immersed in the first place!!! If I hadn't gone through times of absolutely despairing over my inability to homeschool all of my kids at once, I never would have allowed them to venture out on their own. I would have been tethered to the only model I had ever known. I am so thankful that the times of burnout came because I found a much better way for my children (and for me) as a result. This is precisely why I refer to self-teaching as "homeschool freedom" because it frees the student up to fly, and it frees mom up to be mom and not school marm. Think about when your child learned to ride a bike. At first the training wheels were on, and you made sure that support was there. Then the training wheels came off, and you were holding the seat of the bike,running right alongside while your child got the hang of the no-training-wheels thing. Once he was acclimated to the freedom from training wheels, you let go. Okay, you probably had your hands over your eyes and couldn't watch lest he took a tumble, but the child REQUIRED that freedom to master the skill, to learn the art of bike riding. Are you reluctant to let go of your child's "bicycle"? Are you reluctant to trust him to try this learning thing on his own? Just as you don't expect a child to ride a bike overnight, so the educational freedom does not come overnight. It is a process, and we have to take our hands off the bike and let our children go as they demonstrate the ability and maturity to work more and more independently. There is no magical bike-riding age. It is definitely a developmental skill that can not be legislated. There is no magical self-teaching age either. You know your child best, and you know when he or she is ready to leave the training wheels behind, but you have to be willing to let go. I have a friend who has two children who will be graduating this spring. They are very intelligent children. However, the mom recently and miserably recounted to me that she has to stand over one of the two to make sure the math work gets done *each day*, and the other just rips through the work to get it done, not caring about accuracy. How will they do next year in college when mom isn't there to prod and chide? It will be a learning experience, at best. This family has not tried to institute self-learning at any level, by the way. Here's a case of a great mom meaning well but being too control-oriented for her children's good. Don't be running alongside the bicycle holding on."

I am really having a difficult time scheduling these 2 subjects for next year. I know WTM does one on MWF and one on TTH, but I don't think my brain can switch gears like that every day. In the past, I've alternated 2 weeks on one and 2 weeks on the other. Also, part of me feels a little guilty thinking that public schooled 5th graders do both every day - so am I cheating him if I don't do each every day? For science, I bought the Real Science for Kids Chemistry and Biology and the Spectrum science workbooks. For American History, he's doing Abeka and spending a few weeks on state history and government. Thank you in advance for your great advice!! :001_smile:

Just wondering...

Wow! What an amazing resource! I read all the reviews on Amazon, and I couldn't pass this one up! Thank you!!

Just wondering. It seems that all the homeschoolers I know have either always homeschooled or had a bad experience with ps.

First of all, pray for lots of patience!!!! This year, I will have a 10, 8, 6, and 4 year old. I'm hoping it will be easier this year. Some things that have worked in the past: Preschool Activity Bags - you can get the ebook on currclick.com. It's great for self-entertaining activities for your little ones. PBS - Wordworld is great and Super Why - both teach reading skills and my little ones look forward to these shows! Utitlize time with older siblings - I have paid my older children to "teach" my younger ones - This gives them a chance to earn extra spending money and makes it more of a "job" for them. You can have a school box handy and let the older child pick the activity for the day - some suggestions: puzzles, play doh, books to read, workbooks, legos, games, etc. I wouldn't recommend teaching during naptime simply because with all those kids, you need a break too!!! I know some people who stick their kids in the highchair for half an hour with a sucker! "Room time" was a life saver for me when my kids were little. Train them now in the summer to go to their roooms for 30 -45 minutes each day and play alone. I would start out with maybe 5 - 10 minutes and work your way up to 45 min. Put up a gate, turn on some happy kid music, give them a sippy cup of favorite drink, pull out some toys they don't normally play with and let them have fun! Most importantly, set a timer so they are trained to start clean up when timer goes off. When room is clean, they can come out. Works like a charm!! If I think of any more ideas, I'll let you know. Good luck!

I have always heard that Abeka phonics was a very thorough program (although I have never used it). A man (I didn't know him, but he was part of a circle of friends at a cook out) said he pulled his kids out of the expensive private school here in town and put them in a public school. He said when his kids transferred, they were so far behind, they were put in a remedial reading program for 6 months just to catch up with the public school kids!! (Keep in mind, this is an excellent, blue ribbon public school.) I know the private school the kids went to uses Abeka to teach reading. I was floored!! This is the same public school that my sister sends her kids to, and I know they only use a little phonics to teach reading. Her son went into kindergarten not even knowing all the sounds of the alphabet, and by Christmas, he was reading chapter books. Anyone else surprised?!

I love "Get Ripped - Slim and Lean" with Jari Love. I've only used it a couple of times, but I'm already noticing a difference! Check out the reviews on Amazon.

My family LOVES tilapia picatta.. After breading fish in flour, cook in saute pan in olive oil on med. high heat. Put fish in oven at about 300 to keep warm. To make sauce: Melt 3 T butter in fish skillet - then add about 2 T of chopped shallots and a little garlic and a pinch of salt. Saute until soft - add some white wine (maybe a cup) and some fresh squeezed lemon juice. After wine reduces, add a cup of cream and some capers. Drizzle sauce over warm fish. Delicious!!! :001_smile:

Ours is in the basement with no windows, so I painted it yellow and blue to remind me of a sunny day..:001_smile:

Last year was my first year with a school room. Pros: Everything organized in one place No distractions Lots of posters/visuals No need to clean up table to eat (we used to do school on kitchen table) I can "get away" from school and feel like just a mom in my house/kitchen area (I hated staring at that white board and textbooks when I was finished with school for the day) Cons: There are spiders in our basement/classroom It would be nice to feel like I was at home - not in a classroom It was easier to keep track of the little ones upstairs I miss the windows If you don't have a classroom, I would definitely recommend buying a large cabinet or something so you can put "school" away each day.

I love the bookshelves my husband made for us. He copied a design from Pottery Barn using simple house trim he bought at Lowes. I've also seen people do a similar type bookshelf using rain gutters.

I've found that my bookshelves stay a lot more organized if the kids can actually see the covers of the books. They are also more inviting this way. Pottery Barn has these bookshelves for a small fortune, but my husband made them pretty cheaply by using some trim he bought at Lowes.

We've always been happy with the rugs from Lowe's.

We use Hooked on Phonics, and he was finished with level 2 at the end of kindergarten. He doesn't know many sight words, but he can read 3-4 letter words by sounding them out.

I love these ideas! Thanks so much for the links/suggestions! :001_smile:

I would like for my students to create a notebook on all the presidents this year. I'm thinking we will learn about one or two each week. I have lots of info on the presidents, but I'm looking for a creative way to show what we learn (notebook, lapbook?) I've seen some neat ebooks on currclick, but I'd love to hear your ideas!

Thanks so much for all the great suggestions!

"She wants to do WHAT SHE WANTS TO DO and not what she needs to do (if that makes sense). It has taken 3 months of taking a break and only me reading to her for her to FINALLY just now decide that she wants to read (every couple days), but will only read a couple sentences and then push the book away." (not sure how to quote only part of something) This sounds like a discipline issue - not a phonics issue. In my experience, a child will play the "I just don't understand" card if it means getting out of doing work!! I wouldn't allow her to push the book away, because then she's the one making the decisions (when reading is over, etc.) instead of you. My six year old has a lot of difficulty with reading. I think time seriously slows to a crawl when he reads!! I have found that if I give him a piece of sugarless gum right before we read, it makes a huge difference! It perks him up and helps him focus! We read for 15-20 minutes each day, and he knows this is not an option. IMHO, I would not take a 3 month break with a second grader with reading - I would take a break from science, history, or other elective type things to focus on reading though! Even if you just did 5-10 minutes a day, I think you would see a huge improvement in her skills. As her mother, your intuition is right on! If you really can't decide if it's a phonics issue or control issue, you can also try something she can't refuse. For example, "I'd really like to go for a picnic and a swim today, but we need to do our reading first...." If you notice a big difference in her reading fluency when there is a reward involved, then that will no longer be a question in your mind. :001_smile:

The Victory Drill Book is what you need to speed up her reading. My children were also reading very slow until I got this book. If you have a Rainbow Resource catalog, you can read their review (the family that owns RR used the book with all their kids with great success). It starts out very easy - just 3 letter words all with short a sound. The book lists goals for each grade level - (example - 30 words per minute for 1st grade -although I can't remember now if that is accurate, but you get the idea). You can use the book all the way up to 8th grade, and the words get progressively harder. To motivate my children, I bought a treasure chest and filled it with dollar store toys, candy, etc. Whenever they reached their goal on a page, they could pick from the treasure chest. I saw HUGE improvements in their reading skills very quickly. Highly recommend it !!

I always thank God for close calls - without them, I would be a lot more careless! It's hard to shake those feelings of "What if..." but if you replace them with prayers of thanks to God for reminding you how fragile life is, it will bring you peace. :001_smile:

"Life is too short to let all the things we COULD be doing get in the way of doing the IMPORTANT things...like tickling a tummy and giggling together over goofy stories." The above quote was from Jean in Wisc. You are soooo right!! I have to remind myself all the time that there is ALWAYS something that needs to be done - always dirty laundry, always a messy room etc. Trying to get it all done every day reminds me of a dog chasing his own tail. - I wonder if that is what I look like to God in my efforts to clean out my "in box" each day. When will I learn that my in box will NEVER be empty????!!! I think that is especially hard for homeschool moms. We feel so guilty bc we let the house go in order to educate our children. Whenever I have a spare moment, I'm not playing with my kids, I'm doing all the things I think a good wife/mom/housekeeper/teacher etc. should be doing. Life is too short - seize the day!